Notre Dame OC Mike Sanford tuning out coaching rumors

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- With one week left in the regular season, there already are 13 coaching openings at the FBS level: USC, Miami, South Carolina, Mizzou, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Illinois, Syracuse, Iowa State, UCF, North Texas, Hawaii and ULM. More positions will come open after the regular season ends, and then as some of the better jobs on the current list get filled.

Inevitably, Notre Dame offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Mike Sanford's name will be linked to a handful of those jobs. He's already been mentioned as a potential candidate for the Syracuse opening, given Orange athletic director Mark Coyle was in the same position at Boise State while Sanford was the offensive coordinator there.

The 33-year-old Sanford has overseen Notre Dame's offensive success despite losing running back Tarean Folston and quarterback Malik Zaire, and his work developing DeShone Kizer has only led his coaching star to continue to rise.

[MORE: Notre Dame needs DeShone Kizer to learn from 'humbling' BC game]

Coach Brian Kelly said Tuesday he's addressed the coaching rumors with Sanford and isn't concerned about them becoming a distraction as Notre Dame gameplans for Stanford with an eye on the College Football Playoff.

"I think Mike obviously understands, as our other coaches do, that there's a time and place for it," Kelly said. "... His focus is here at Notre Dame and he wants to be here at Notre Dame.

"We have a job to do, and that is to finish this off. So he's not affected by the noise. He knows that as a lot of our coaches know their names are going to be thrown around, especially when you're successful. But he's 100 percent focused on this football team."

Kelly has had three coordinators hired away for head coaching jobs in his five previous seasons: Offensive coordinator Charley Molnar, who was fired after going 2-22 at UMass; defensive coordinator Bob Diaco, who just led UConn to an upset of Houston last weekend that clinched the Huskies' first bowl berth since 2010; and offensive coordinator Chuck Martin, who finished 3-9 in Year 2 at Miami (Ohio).

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Sanford seems destined to be a head coach someday, but whether he'd jump from Notre Dame after only a year on Kelly's staff remains to be seen.

"I think he's contributed greatly to the energy, the ideas," Kelly said last week. "I think Mike Denbrock has been great. I think Autry (Denson), I think everybody has contributed, Harry (Hiestand), everybody. Scott Booker. Everybody has contributed greatly to what we're doing. I think where we're feeling (Sanford's) immediate effects is he's done an incredible job of mentoring and coaching the quarterbacks.

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